A/C for chickens

Today I am so grateful for air conditioning. The weather is oppressively humid and hot. What can I do to help my chickens get through the next few days?

This is my makeshift air cooler. The gallon milk jug is solid ice, and I've placed it in a bucket (red, of course) of water. It's up on blocks which will absorb a bit of condensation as it melts. I have two more jugs of ice in the freezer to rotate as necessary.

We also have a fan in the coop. The girls don't appreciate the air blowing directly at them, so the fan is wired up at shoulder height and aimed into the hen house. Sorry that the photo is foggy, but the dew point is so high that I couldn't get the camera lens to clear.

In addition, I'll be hosing down the chicken yard every few hours and providing plenty of fresh water. To be honest, I worry more about the girls in the heat than I do in the sub-zero temperatures of January!

Chicken Predators

Yesterday I agreed to a telephone interview with a student journalist writing for The Badger Herald. I was told that the article was about urban chickens and urban farms, but I quickly learned there was an ulterior motive. It seems the writer's mother knows urban hen keepers who are complaining about foxes. These folks have contacted the Department of Natural Resources and expect some sort of action regarding foxes in the city.

Red Bucket Farm is situated immediately adjacent to a wildlife sanctuary, part of the city parks department. Our section of the park is dense trees, brambles, and a few hiking paths. We have all kinds of predators---foxes, coyotes, hawks and a pair of great horned owls. We rely on these predators to keep the rabbit, squirrel and chipmunk population in check. Without their help, I'd have to start trapping the little critters to save my crops.

We researched our chicken coop for months before building it in 2010. Since safety was our primary concern, we covered the entire coop with half-inch hardware cloth. The hardware cloth covers the walls, windows, and ceiling; it's also sandwiched between two layers of flooring. We attached it with screws and fender washers. All doors and windows are secured with locks. It may seem extreme, but we've never lost a hen to any predator.

Remember that chickens sleep from dusk to dawn, and darkness causes them to go into "torpor," a kind of stupor or unconsciousness in which the heart rate is lowered. They can't make any effort to defend themselves. This is why chickens roost in a high place at night.

So let's be clear: protecting the urban flock from predators is a farmer's responsibility. Anyone who staples chicken wire to a wooden frame and calls it a coop is asking for trouble. Our hens provide us with fresh eggs, manure for fertilizing, and hours of entertainment. We owe it to them to care for them properly.

Sub-zero Chickens

Earlier this month we experienced three consecutive days of -20 degree Fahrenheit daytime temperatures. Although I believe chickens to be outdoor animals, that was just too cold for my hens to keep each other warm. So they came indoors to the basement bathroom for a few days. It was more than a circus!

A five pound hen generates about 10 watts of energy, so a flock of birds can usually warm each other, especially if they're in a barn with other farm animals. But our little flock of urban birds needed a bit of extra help.

This week we're heading into another polar plunge, but this time we're ready for it. We've installed two ceramic infrared heat emitters in the ceiling of the hen house. (We have no hope of keeping the entire coop warm because it's too large---6 x 8 feet and 7 feet high. But the raised hen house is only 3 x 6 feet and about 3 feet high.) These heat emitters do not emit any light. We've tried using red heat lamps, but it keeps our girls up and chattering all night long and sometimes drives them right out of the hen house. The ceramic heat emitters will keep the air temperature just marginally warmer than the outdoor temps. This is good enough for us, because we don't think it's entirely helpful to raise the temperature too much.

Ceramic heat emitters are designed for reptile pets. Many thanks to Ellen and David for pointing us in this direction!

Coop Tour Fun

On Saturday, we volunteered as one of a dozen host sites for the Mad City Chicken Coop Tour. Visitors began arriving just after 9 am and continued in a steady stream all morning. Although the tour was scheduled to end at 1 pm, we chatted with guests until 2:00.

We met so many wonderful chicken enthusiasts, all of them curious and ready to learn. We shared our chicken-keeping philosophy---why we chose a walk-in style coop and elevated hen house, and the importance of hardware cloth over chicken wire. We talked about chicken breeds, egg color, heated water dishes, supplemental lighting, insulation, ventilation, winter protection, hawks and owls and coyotes. Oh, my! Many of our guests also asked about our top bar beehives, raised garden beds, hops towers, hillside terraces, home orchard and greenhouse.

In return, visitors were happy to share their own expertise with us. We learned that lemon balm is just as invasive as mint. One person shared a recipe for making skin balm from beeswax, almond oil and essential oil. Another new friend offered to share a bit of SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) or "mother culture" for making kombucha.

We estimate that our visitors numbered between 60 and 70. A few guests came from the neighborhood, others from across Madison, Middleton, McFarland, Stoughton, Columbus, Walworth County, Milwaukee and even northern Illinois. Several folks expressed frustration at their restrictive local ordinances.

The only problem with volunteering as a host is that we didn't get to visit other coops. We managed a quick after-hours peek at one other host site where we discovered a wonderful and creative adaptive reuse of a child's play house.

It was a fabulous (and exhausting) day. The weather was beautiful, the chickens showed well, and the people were supportive and fun. If you haven't experienced a coop tour, give it a try!

Coop Tour

Mad City Chickens presents their annual Backyard Coop Tour on Saturday June 1, 2013 from 9 am to 1 pm. It's a casual opportunity for interested folks to take a peek into the yards of chicken wranglers across the city of Madison.

Here at Red Bucket Farm, we are one of six east side sites hosting visitors. There are six additional sites across the west side of town, including two in Middleton. Click on this link for a map to all twelve sites or go to www.madcitychickens.com and click on calendar of events.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=208987183615030374269.0004dae04ff7a7e56ae87&msa=0

Please be aware that hosts may be concerned about bio-security. As tour participants travel from one urban farm to another, it's possible to carry poultry disease on shoes. Some sites may ask guests to step on a disinfectant shoe mat. At our farm, we have plenty of space for guests to stand outside the chicken yard, and we'll offer an array of "chicken shoes" (mostly crocs) at the gate for folks wishing to wander inside the chicken yard and get a closer look at the details of the coop.

If you've ever been interested in keeping chickens, or if you already keep chickens but are curious how other chicken yards are situated and maintained, this is a good chance to show up and ask questions. See you Saturday!

Featured in Ultimate Coop Book

We're pleased to announce that our chicken coop at Red Bucket Farm has been selected to be featured in Tricia Cornell's upcoming book, The Ultimate Chicken Coop Book: Building Plans for Essential Coops and Tractors with 101 Inspirational Variations. Tricia's book features ten basic chicken coop designs including instructions and cut lists, plus a photo gallery of variations.

A few months ago the author posted on the local urban chicken listserv explaining her project and seeking submissions. I sent her a few photos and a quick description. After being accepted into the project, we cleaned, scrubbed, photographed, and recreated many sketches of the design. We also had a telephone interview with the author to discuss our coop research, design and building efforts. Tricia will have our sketches drafted into clear building plans. We think our coop will be the example of a walk-in coop.

We built our coop in May and June 2010. Our primary considerations were having a shelter that is predator-proof, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, healthy for the girls and yet relatively easy to maintain for this baby boomer chicken farmer. Tricia's book will detail all this and much more. The book is scheduled for publication next spring (2014) and you can pre-order your copy at www.amazon.com.

Pretty cool, right? I'm so proud of my husband---coop builder and designer!

Chicks in Day Coop

At Red Bucket Farm, we have a small portable structure we call the day coop. This little unit is especially useful for raising chicks, housing sick or injured hens, and as extra daytime shelter for the flock during the winter months.

Our day coop is 40"x 60" and 24" high. The wood frame is covered securely with hardware cloth. It has a hinged wood roof over an open floor. It keeps our birds relatively safe during the daytime from dogs and hawks, but it is not secure from nocturnal predators like coons and foxes.

Our spring chicks have been enjoying warm days outside in the day coop. The constellation girls (Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Ursa and Venus) are just over three weeks old. They are losing their baby fluff as their feathers fill in. On warm days, we transfer them outside for a few hours, but they always come back into the brooder box indoors at night.

The chicks are kept separately from the mature hens for a few months, until they are all approximately the same size. It's a bit tricky to incorporate new pullets into an established flock because the older hens can be aggressive towards the younger. For now we keep them at a distance. They can see each other across the lawn. Later in the summer, we'll start moving them together.

We had an unusual experience in our day coop this spring. The little coop had been inside the fenced chicken yard all winter and the hens would hang out there during the day. Somehow, a rabbit boldly built a nest inside the day coop. I found a little hole in the ground complete with six baby bunnies last week when I moved the day coop to clean the chicken yard. As I discovered the little critters, all of the hens came running to examine the squirming mass. They seemed as surprised as I was! Chickens are carnivores, so I quickly removed the bunnies to avoid a bloody slaughter. Evidently the day coop provides shelter for more than just my birds!